


the scent of embers in the air

by Leahelisabeth (fortheloveofcamelot)



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragon Riders, Gen, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:02:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22740040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortheloveofcamelot/pseuds/Leahelisabeth
Summary: A runner meets a dragon rider on a cold and lonely mountain. He finds much more than he'd bargained for.
Relationships: Kevin Day & Andrew Minyard, Matt Boyd & Neil Josten, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 23
Kudos: 131
Collections: AFTG Exchange Valentine's Day 2020





	the scent of embers in the air

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CasTheButler](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CasTheButler/gifts).



> This was written for the AFTG Exchange for Valentine's Day 2020. The prompt I chose was "The go hog wild and write whatever story you want especially if it involves dragons and at least one sword fight" AU. No sword fights yet but I find it extremely likely that I am not finished with this universe just yet.   
> Thank you to gluupor and syd for providing a last minute beta!

His hands were cold. Skin cracked over his knuckles and bright drops of blood dripped onto the snow. He stuffed them into his armpits, trying to bring feeling back into his numb fingers, but even that did no good. He was a fucking idiot and he was going to die on this mountain.

Part of him wanted to just lie down and give up. It didn’t matter if he made it through this pass; there was nothing waiting on the other side. Hope had driven him out into the cold, but it was time to be realistic: hope alone could only take him so far.

He had stopped moving without even realizing it. His arms hung limply by his sides and he couldn’t force himself to take another step, not when the unbroken white expanse before him looked so soft, not when the promise of warmth beckoned him down into sleep. He dropped to his knees, powerless to fight the pull of oblivion. He would continue his journey when he woke up.

* * *

He was warm when he woke and he wasn’t expecting that. He hadn’t really expected to wake up at all. He could see the flicker of firelight through his closed eyelids and the warmth of fur pressed him down into the surface below him. He was in a reclining position, propped up against something that was radiating heat. A warm lethargy covered him and he couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes in case this was the final attempt of his broken mind to give him a little bit of peace before death.

“I know you’re awake,” a low, raspy voice sounded close by in his ear.

His eyes popped open and he recoiled from the shadowy figure hovering menacingly above him.

“I don’t have anything worth stealing,” he blurted out.

“I don’t intend to rob you,” the voice continued. “But I do need to know how you found this place and who you’re working for.”

“I’m not working for anyone. I’m lost,” he insisted.

“No one just stumbles into this place,” the voice scoffed. “It takes powerful magic to get through my wards. Tell me the truth.”

“I am,” he protested.

The figure reached up and pulled off the hood that was obscuring his face, revealing burnished blond hair, an expressionless face, and golden eyes with slitted pupils like a reptile’s.

He scrambled back into the warmth behind him. “What are you?” he asked.

“Andrew,” the man said, completely deadpan.

“That’s not what I asked,” he said, accusingly.

“I know,” Andrew said. “But that’s all I’m willing to share with a nameless stranger in my domain.”

He shut his eyes. This was the moment. He had left behind the person he was, and he hadn’t yet decided who he was going to be. He couldn’t meet Andrew’s eyes and instead took his time to look around. He was in some kind of large cave. A fire burned at the center, smoke billowing out through a convenient hole in the ceiling. He could smell wood smoke and a hint of something else, still fire, but cleaner. The entrance in front of him was draped with furs in a type of makeshift door.

“It isn’t advanced alchemy,” Andrew said, eyes rolling. “Tell me your name.”

“Neil. I’m Neil,” he said, and was shocked to realize it wasn’t the lie he had intended to tell. It wasn’t the entire truth either, but it was closer than he intended.

“Neil.” Andrew stared him down, eyebrow raised.

Neil forced himself not to flinch, meeting Andrew’s eyes with, not bravery, but at least sheer stubbornness.

“Interesting.” Andrew stood and turned his back on Neil to attend to a gently bubbling pot sitting in the coals. “Kevin hasn’t eaten you yet so you can’t be all bad.”

Neil shot upright, suddenly making sense of what he was feeling, the rasp of scales catching at his clothing, the slow rise and fall, like breath in a set of very large lungs, that delicious heat. He scrambled away and turned to look. Filling the back half of the cave was a giant beast with shining bronze scales; he had been leaning against a dragon.

The dragon lifted his head and looked Neil up and down. He huffed a little cloud of smoke at him and then closed his eyes and rested his head on his forelegs, completely dismissing Neil.

“I told you,” Andrew said. “He isn’t going to eat you. He doesn’t like to play with his food.”

Neil kept a wary eye out regardless. He had never seen a full-grown dragon up close. This one was not what he had expected. He was magnificent at first glance but when he looked closer, he could see where his bones protruded against his skin. Several of the fine scales on his face had been torn away and the number 2 had been inked onto his bare skin. His left wing showed signs of having been broken and reset. White jagged lines marred the smooth membrane and Neil wondered if this beast could even fly.

He began to edge toward the entrance of the cave but the farther he got from Kevin, the colder he got. He hadn’t made it all the way to the door before he began shivering again.

“The storm has grown worse since I found you out there.” Andrew said this in a conversational tone without looking at Neil at all. He continued to stir the large pot over the fire. “Snow so thick you can’t see an inch in front of your face, and the wind is strong enough to blow you right off the mountain. You will die.”

Neil stopped his slow creep toward the door but didn’t go back toward the fire. He wanted to keep as much distance between himself and the dragon as he possibly could. The cold in his bones had not quite left and he could feel it rising and taking over once more.

Andrew ignored him again until Neil’s teeth started chattering. “Gods, you’re such a martyr. Kevin isn’t good for much but he makes an excellent heat source.”

Neil hesitated for another long moment but in the end, he couldn’t resist the temptation of warmth and he settled back against Kevin’s side.

He tried to remain vigilant but he was still feeling the effects of many sleepless nights and days spent running and hiding. He soon drifted back to sleep.

* * *

The cave was cold when Neil woke up. He was no longer leaning against the dragon, and somehow everything except the blanket he was wrapped in had been packed up without waking him. The fire was long dead. Neil couldn’t find a hint of warmth in the ash. Andrew had left him.

It wasn’t that much of a surprise, really. Neil was a stranger. Andrew owed him nothing. But he couldn’t help feeling a little bit disappointed. Running was going to be even harder now that he’d had a taste of what it might feel like to stop.

He didn’t have much to gather. He hadn’t had anything on him when he’d run. He realized as he looked around that not quite everything had been taken. A coat made of fur was neatly folded in one corner and a pair of warm looking boots were laid beside it. Gratefully, Neil shed the blanket and pulled the coat around his shoulders. It didn’t quite fit, a little wide in the shoulders, but it was miles better than the thin jacket he was wearing. It had been meant for ceremonial purposes rather than protection against the elements. The boots were a little big as well, but they were lined with thick fur and made of well cured leather. Neil flung his old shoes, again more decorative than functional, across the cave with disgust and wiggled his toes in his new boots. He was starting to feel a little more hopeful about his chances.

He took a deep breath and prepared to face the cold. He stepped outside and squinted against the brightness of sun on snow. 

He was so certain he had been left behind that he started violently when he saw Andrew about a hundred yards from the mouth of the cave. Kevin was standing in front of him, wings stretched wide and flapping them slowly. Andrew was circling him and looking closely at the injured wing, presumably checking on the healing process. He gave a sharp whistle and, with a powerful beat of his wings, Kevin lifted off. He was clumsy and ungainly in the air and Neil could see how he overcompensated with his right wing to make up for the reduced mobility and function of his left. He only flew for a minute or two before landing at Andrew’s feet once more. 

Andrew grasped Kevin’s jaw in both hands and leaned forward, pressing his forehead to Kevin’s scaly nose. Neil suddenly had the impression this was something he wasn’t meant to see.

He was considering trying to make his getaway unseen, but was stopped by Andrew’s voice.

“Neil.” Andrew had yet to turn and look at him.

Neil considered running but knew it was futile in the deep snow. He walked over to where Kevin stood, steaming slightly in the snow.

“Kevin still has not recovered enough to bear a rider,” Andrew said. “We’ll have to walk.”

“Walk?” Neil asked.

“To the Dragon Flight. It’s up the mountain, probably another day’s journey if we push through.”

“You want me to come with you?” Neil asked, a strange lump in his throat suddenly making it difficult to speak.

Andrew finally looked Neil in the face. Neil was already becoming accustomed to those strange eyes. “Was I wrong?” Andrew asked, raising an eyebrow. “You weren’t running away from something? Do you in fact have a destination in mind?”

Neil opened his mouth to argue but he didn’t have anything to say. He had a vague remembrance that his mother’s family lived somewhere on the other side of the mountain range but, even if he survived the journey, he wouldn’t know where to start looking. He didn’t even have the name of a town or city, just a first name, Stuart, and a memory of a grainy photo that had been torn up and burned years ago.

He shrugged instead. Andrew turned back to Kevin, ignoring Neil completely, and started working a thick, strong smelling substance into the scar tissue on Kevin’s wing. Kevin huffed out smoke a few times but didn’t pull away.

That done, Andrew loaded Kevin up with most of the packs and they began their long hike up the mountain. Kevin went first to break a trail and Andrew followed after. Neil brought up the rear.

It was a long walk and Neil couldn’t keep his mind from wandering. There was still a very large part of him that wanted to flee. His mother had always told him, _trust no one,_ and now he was walking into the middle of nowhere with a strange man and a dragon. He didn’t know where Andrew was leading him, only that there would be more dragons at his destination. 

Neil had never met a dragon before. He knew the people that rode them were hardly human, nearly feral, violent and cruel. He had run from the first dragonrider he had met, and now he was willingly following another into the mountains?

His feet were tired and he was no more settled about his decision when he reached the Dragon Flight.

It was not what he had expected. He was looking for an imposing castle, built from stone carried on the backs of the dragons they had bound to servitude. What he found was another cave, just below the mountain’s peak. The door was melted into the side of the mountain and large enough for a full grown dragon to fly in with wings fully unfurled.

It was immediately warmer inside. There was a large main area when they first entered. There was lots of natural light as there was a hole bored through the ceiling and up through the peak of the mountain. Several smaller caves branched off from the main one. The biggest ones, closer to the door, each housed a dragon. Towards the back and farther into the mountain, there were a few that were fitted with steel doors. 

“I thought you were just bringing a dragon,” a voice that was somehow both familiar and strange interrupted Neil’s wide mouthed amazement. He turned to see another Andrew.

“What the fuck?” Neil asked.

Not-Andrew’s scowl grew deeper. “I hope you know what you’re doing, Andrew. It’s not safe to let just anyone in.”

“It’s my business,” Andrew growled. “I’ll let you keep your tongue if you mind yours.”

Aaron rolled his eyes. “It’s not me you need to be worried about. It’ll be Nicky when he finds out you brought an extra for dinner without any warning.”

Neil immediately dismissed Not-Andrew as a not-threat and he turned away to get a closer look at some of the dragon pens. There was a strange humming in his ears and it was pulling him to the right, to a cave with the largest dragon in the place. It had jet black scales that shone like deep water and great curving horns on its head. It stood as Neil drew closer, exposing a coal dark underbelly with scales that glowed a dull red at every breath.

The humming in Neil’s head grew louder and he kept walking forward. Instinct took over and he reached out with his right hand and laid it on the dragon’s nose. Then, mimicking what he had seen Andrew do that morning, he pressed his forehead to the dragon’s smooth scales.

_Welcome, Rider. I am Matt._ A voice resonated in Neil’s head and he knew he was somehow hearing the dragon’s words.

He stepped back and opened his eyes. The humming was gone, quieted by the dragon’s touch. He turned to look out at the cave again and everything seemed just a little clearer, a little sharper.

A few strangers had entered the main cave while Neil was talking to Matt and they all stood, open mouthed, staring at Neil.

Neil shrank back, putting Matt’s comforting bulk at his back.

Andrew came forward and looked carefully at Neil’s face. “Hmm. Interesting,” he said before turning and walking away. “Supper’s ready,” he called over his shoulder.

Neil stroked Matt’s nose once before following. He wasn’t sure exactly what had changed, but he no longer felt like running.


End file.
